The no-growth future: has Australia´s economy finally run out of luck?
(The Guardian Business News)

The expectation, based on the past, that we should get richer and richer may have reached its use-by dateWages are stagnant. Wealth is falling. House prices are down. Consumers aren´t spending. Businesses aren´t investing. Interest rates are at record lows and may be heading for zero. The federal government and Reserve Bank seem locked in an arm wrestle over whether fiscal or monetary policy should be used to generate more stimulus. Unemployment has stopped going down. Overseas, storm clouds are darkening.Though the last national accounts showed the Australian economy grew by 1.8% in the year to March, things feel worse than that. If the economy is not actually tanking, it is certainly anaemic. Has Australia entered a new, post-growth phase? Continue reading...